Police investigating tips on fatal assault on asylum seeker in The Hague

The police are speaking to witnesses daily and investigating various tips around the fatal assault of a Somali man in The Hague last weekend. A spokeswoman did not want to comment on the identity of the men who are being sought as suspects due to the ongoing investigation.

In the evening of Saturday leading into Sunday, a 23-year-old man was assaulted on the Plein in The Hague city center. He passed away from his injuries in the hospital. The police are looking for four suspects, which are men between 18 and 35 years of age and have a tinted skin colour. The police would say nothing further about any of the men’s characteristics.

The police will place so-called pavement signs on the Plein starting Friday afternoon, calling on people to share images or information. The signs will remain up until Sunday morning. People who were on the Plein last weekend and whose phones have pinged the mast in that area will also receive a text message from the police asking them to share information.

The assault victim was staying in an asylum seekers center in Heerhugowaard, Noord-Holland. The Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) is in contact with a “Somali person who speaks Dutch and lives here” who is acting as a contact person for the man’s relatives, according to a spokesperson.

As far as the COA knows, the victim was in the Netherlands without his family. He did have friends here. According to the police, he was in The Hague with a friend last week at the moment of the assault. The friend is not a suspect in this case.

The COA is organizing the victim’s funeral with his relatives. The spokesperson said the family will decide on a possible commemoration for the man. It is also possible that the family wants a commemoration without public attention, he explained.